2005 double sprint champion Justin Gatlin remained up with Bolt just past the halfway mark before the world record holder powered away to regain the title he first won in Berlin in 2009, but lost due to his false-start in Daegu.

American Gatlin was the only non-Jamaican in the top five as Nesta Carter held off compatriots Kemar Bailey-Cole and Nickel Ashmeade to claim the bronze medal.

Bolt’s slowest winning time across his two Olympic and two world successes at 100m still secured glory as European champion Christophe Lemaitre seemed to pull a hamstring while crossing the finish line in seventh.

Elsewhere, Brittney Reese earned a record third women’s long jump world title as she edged glory by a mere two centimetres from Nigeria’s Blessing Okagbare with a leap of 7.01 metres.

Poster girl for the Championships and European indoor champion Darya Klishina was seventh overall for the hosts, despite being six centimetres outside the medals.

Tirunesh Dibaba won her fifth track world title and 10th world crown overall as the reigning Olympic champion sped clear to win the women’s 10,000m as conditions began to get difficult.

Ashton Eaton won the decathlon, 23-year-old Croat Sandra Perkovic added the IAAF version to her European gold from last year in the women’s discus as Russia claimed their first win of their Games through Aleksandr Ivanov in the men’s 20k walk.

Brian Gregan had a long wait but squeezed into Monday evening’s 400m semi-finals as a fastest loser, having come sixth in his morning heat.

However, his time of 46.04 seconds was enough to put him through as the third fastest-loser, despite suffering from Achilles trouble this summer.

“It was ok. I’ve been fighting a few injuries since the World Student Games last month,” Gregan said.

“My Achilles has been bothering me a lot. It hasn’t really cleared up and has been on and off.

“I don’t know how I made it to the start line, I’ve missed a lot. You can’t miss key sessions when you’re racing these boys.

“To run 46.0 this early in the morning? I’ve never done that before. It’s a step in the right direction.”

Tori Peña cleared 4.30m at the first attempt in pole vault qualifying, but could not clear 4.45 as she missed out on the final at a seventh major Championships.

Peña said: “I'm disappointed, frustrated. I felt really good, it's the best I've felt in a championships, and I felt really good clearing 4.30, but I had a few problems with my run up.

“I mean, there's no excuse. It's disappointing. 4.55 made it to the final and I feel like that's well within my reach. I keep improving every year, but I need to get the consistency level at championships.

“It is hard to hold your peak. I wanted to get the qualifying early, I got it in June. The conditions were perfect, no excuse, very little wind. It was nice and warm."

But for Bolt, his success meant whatever the weather, celebrations for the Jamaican contingent in Moscow would go on deep into the night. Yet again.